Krugman, Tarp, and the Tea Party

it's hard to find angry Tea Party denunciations of huge Wall Street bailouts, of huge bonuses paid to executives who were saved from disaster by government backing and guarantees. Instead, all the movement's passion, starting with Rick Santelli's famous rant on CNBC, has been directed against any hint of financial relief for low-income borrowers.

Finding these denunciations is not "hard," as Professor Krugman claims. In fact a quick search in the archives of the Times itself turns up a news article about Sharron Angle, "the Tea Party darling from Nevada," denouncing Senator McCain as "Lord of the TARP."

Another Times news article, which appeared on the newspaper's front page, reported:

Democrats who voted for the bailout — which was championed by their own leaders along with President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain of Arizona, then the Republican presidential nominee — are now facing attacks from Republican challengers on the campaign trail. Republicans who voted for it are being accused of promoting big government and fiscal irresponsibility by Tea Party candidates and other conservatives.

Emotions can run high over the subject. Lawmakers report being buttonholed over bailouts by confrontational constituents, and Senator Robert F. Bennett, Republican of Utah, was jeered at a party convention by people chanting "TARP, TARP, TARP."

"It became a litmus test of fidelity to free enterprise principles," said Representative Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who was crushed in a primary last month partly because of his vote in favor of the plan.

Another Times news article, headlined "Conservatives Heckle Hatch on Tarp Vote," reported: "Speaking to the conservative activists, Mr. Hatch, a Republican in his sixth term, was booed as he tried to defend his vote for the TARP program that bailed out the banks — a bugaboo for conservatives."

Professor Krugman doesn't even have to rely on the Times news department for this sort of information. It was readily available from his colleagues on the Times op-ed page, who didn't seem to have nearly as much difficulty as Professor Krugman did in locating Tea Party activists angry about TARP.

Here is Frank Rich: "The more we learn about the Tea Partiers, the more we can see why. They loathe John McCain and the free-spending, TARP-tainted presidency of George W. Bush."

Here is Ross Douthat: "It was TARP that first turned Tea Partiers against Republican incumbents, and independents against Washington."

Here is Frank Bruni: "He [Paul Ryan] voted for TARP. That's now Tea Party anathema and was precisely the cudgel Perry used to flatten Kay Bailey Hutchison in his 2010 re-election race."

The fact that the Tea Party hates TARP undercuts Professor Krugman's argument that the Tea Party is all a bunch of racists who oppose government subsidies for poor black people but not for rich Wall Street bankers. But Professor Krugman goes ahead with that argument anyway, in defiance of the facts.

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